- The cyborg formatting sounds good, though could you clarify what happens to him between the end of the Reptite timeline and his comeback in the Porre Lab? I think I'm missing something (why does he leave Chronopolis, if he does go there). Oh and, why not give him back his name, Sorin? Kasmir sounds better than Serran too, I think.
- King Zeal's attempt to create a new kingdom is very good. This gives a concrete insight on his wishes and develops all the other stuff (even Sargon!). The speech is quite long but could fit if we put some drama and a big crowd of people listening, etc. I'm not sure why it's Glenn who stands up and suddenly gives this speech though. Among the crowd would be Mystics, but still Glenn would be more prone to act like this in 602 A.D. than in 11,998 B.C. He seems a bit like he was aware of the events and is reading a written speech here. Also, how will the entire sequence be played? Will there be battles?
- About Chapter 20: Perhaps only the 3 sequences corresponding to the 3 active characters should be shown? This would favor replay value over any possible redundancy.
~
And now, something even longer than above!
I've finally managed to formulate something that was blurrily on my mind since a while. This is another take on the origins of Lavos, wrapping some stuff about the Frozen Flame's purpose and the overarching CC plot, thanks to all the site's gathered theories and information:
Lavos did not only evolve the human species, Lavos IS humanity. He represents the desire of evolution taken to an extreme. He wants to keep on evolving and improving himself continuously but too wildly: if we could ask him why he wants that, he'll probably have no answer to give. This is kind of the same thing for humans:
Kid:
So that's Terra Tower's
final, true form...
In the end, we're all the
same...
Everyone dreams of bein'
greater, more powerful...
They want self-improvement, scientific progress, etc., but where are they heading to with all this? The same question can be asked for the Reptites and every other living beings too, but the game will focus on humanity because they're the ones who got in contact with the Frozen Flame. In CC, the humans are compared to Lavos; throughout CE we could hint at the reverse, that Lavos can also be compared to humans. The original Lavoids would have originated on a planet in which humanity was so advanced, yet so selfish and destructive, that they evolved into Lavoids (this would take thousands of millennias of course). In addition to what we know of the Lavoid life cycle, the humans would also fit somewhere in there, being evolved by Lavoids, but also
becoming Lavoids. The Chrono planet basically risks the same
fate if the humans don't take more responsability in their free will. In a way, I guess this cycle is comparable to the Hindo-Buddhistic notion of
Samsara, the wheel of perpetual reincarnations.
Maybe we could put this little scene in some nightmare or DBT area too:
On Lavos' form in the Defiled World: I'd wanted to implement this idea a while ago, and this is a perfect place for it. Remember the demon sculpture on the top of Magus' summoning altar in the original game? Lavos' form here will basically amount to that brought to life. It's a twisted form that reflects Lavos' sick desires
Some character could note that it's a twisted form that reflects Lavos' sick desires, but that also depicts him as a humanoid (despite the horns and extra arms).
Now, about the Frozen Flame's origins. Its creation was actually accidental. In order to evolve, Lavos just has to slumber in the planet's core, he doesn't need anything else. However, a piece of his shell splintered by mere chance and remained on the surface. Lavos never wanted other beings to use the Flame's power, so he wanted to retrieve it.
Lavos succeeded in recovering the Flame in 12,000 B.C. in the original timeline, when he tricked Queen Zeal into setting forth the conditions of the Ocean Palace disaster (yes, this is an adaptation of DBoruta's theory, we'll have to thank him hugely). After retrieving the Flame, Lavos simply destroyed it, or something, because he already has similar powers to it. However, in Keystone T-1, the same attempt failed because of Crono's intervention (in Keystone T-2, the TTI-fied Lavos pulls Chronopolis back in time to try a second time to retrieve the Flame, but that's after CT:CE).
Yet, simultaneously to these attempts, and all the more after them, Lavos also communicates with the person possessing the Flame, if this person is fitting or special enough. This person would be the
Arbiter of Time, someone Lavos discusses with and gives a chance to stop his never-ending quest for evolution, i.e. the mediator between Lavos and the planet's inhabitants. Lavos will, explicitely or not, interrogate him about the meaning of life and
their purpose in the universe (Lavos'
and the Arbiter's purpose, which is the same). Whether the Arbiter can answer those questions or not, he will eventually have to make a choice: either merge with Lavos and join him in his quest to find the answers, or refuse to do so and possibly remain alive if they're strong-minded enough, in which case Lavos will still destroy the planet sooner or later and continue his life cycle anyway. King Zeal and Schala were the latest Arbiters. There were a certain amount of Arbiters before them too, and whether they fused with Lavos or not, they all contributed to add to Lavos's sentience and knowledge of things (Lavoids are all sentient, but this particular Lavos is even more...cognizant thanks to his contact with the surface species; there is a bit of the "Reconciling differences" theme in here).
The last point is the defeat of Lavos in Chrono Trigger. This has viciously altered Lavos' perspective on the universe. Instead of wanting to seek some metaphysical knowledge, he has given up and began to wish for the destruction of all space-time instead. In CT:CE, King Zeal is the Arbiter of Time. He's supposed to
have the choice to not fuse with Lavos, and hugely prefer a new Zeal Kingdom actually, but he eventually falls. Perhaps he could somehow come to a conclusion reminiscent of Miguel's speech (about
res nullius, fusing with eternity, etc.). Whether it's because of his madness, Lavos' will, or his conscious choice, we don't know and we defeat him before the fusion anyhow.
At the end of CC, Serge uses the Chrono Cross to "heal" the Time Devourer. Whether it answers Lavos' questions or not, we again don't know, but the liberated Schala does seem to have grasped something deep about the meaning of life.
So, that's it. It can be gradually explained throughout the game, with the big Arbiter/choice and alien/human thingies being revealed in the DBT mentioned pop-ups. I suppose this still doesn't exactly hasten things at the end of the game, though perhaps Lavos at North Cape could actually be calling the cast to the DBT to expose them his immense dilemma... this would at least make them and the player curious, and give the Entity's test another reason to be (to make sure they don't suddenly agree with Lavos' philosophy or something like that).
This interpretation explains a lot about Lavos, and gives him some personality, while still keeping the focus on humanity and the struggle of free will and fate, as it is in the rest of the series. But of course, that's a suggestion. Thoughts on it?